A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as immigrants prepare to board a bus after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 7, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
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President Trump returns to a larger Department of Homeland Security than he had during his first term.
Changes to hiring and retention practices allowed the Biden administration to increase the number of employees at DHS by over 19,000 in four years.
Trump is preparing to use the department to enact his strict immigration agenda, which includes plans for mass deportation, stricter border security and reduced incentives to migrate legally to the U.S.
But former officials warn current staffing levels still do not measure up to Trump’s ambitious policy goals, as well as increased levels of migration into the U.S. The three agencies overseeing immigration processing have long suffered recruiting and retention challenges while seesawing with each administration’s new priorities.
“That’s one of the biggest problems that has plagued all immigration agencies for as long as I’ve been in the government,” said Michael Knowles, executive vice president of AFGE National CItizenship and Immigration Services Council 119, which represents employees including asylum and immigration services officers.
He has served as an elected union representative since 2000.
“There’s not enough people to do the work that we were required to do by law and by public expectation.”
The Homeland Security Department did not respond to questions about the state of its workforce or plans moving forward.
In an address to DHS staff, new Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it is her “responsibility to do everything that I can to give you the resources that you need to do your job.”
“You need the training, you need the equipment, and the resources to make sure you’re prepared for every single situation you find yourself in,” Noem said to staff.
Some numbers up, but pressure remains
DHS includes the three immigration law enforcement agencies: Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
DHS agents and officers are responsible for myriad immigration-related and homeland security tasks. They oversee immigration law enforcement and investigations, process asylum, visa and citizenship applications, and coordinate deportations. The agencies also oversee cross-border trade, travel, and human and drug trafficking investigations unrelated to migration.
Staffing levels analyzed by NPR show that Biden added just over 3,000 CBP employees and 3,300 USCIS employees to the agencies. This continued the growth during Trump’s first four years, according to the data. ICE, however, lost 72 employees by the end of Biden’s term, compared to 2020.
The topline figures also mask deeper, long-standing issues. The agency’s morale has long suffered across administrations of both political parties. The department consistently ranks last, or close to last, in the Partnership for Public Service’s best places to work among federal agencies.
It moved up to 14th place last year out of 17, which department officials touted. Still, CBP and ICE employee engagement and satisfaction levels barely nudged up.
At the same time as staffing inched up, the number of people crossing the northern and southern U.S. borders skyrocketed over the last four years, far outpacing the growth in the workforce.
“It’s been a tough time for law enforcement in this country. I do hope that we turn that corner very rapidly. It is an extraordinarily noble profession,” Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas said in an exit interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, speaking of staffing levels.
CBP efforts to boost hiring
Under Mayorkas’ tenure, CBP was able to boost the workforce with monetary incentives like hiring bonuses, steps to improve morale and changes to the hiring process itself, according to a Governmental Accountability Office report.
Still, the GAO report notes CBP has not been able to hire enough border patrol agents to meet its staffing targets in recent fiscal years.
Regardless of incentives, applications did not increase — a problem the first Trump administration also faced. Even with the overall increased staffing on paper, the agency has not been able to replace border patrol agents who have left with new ones since the 2021 fiscal year.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers prepare for morning operations to arrest those without legal status in April 2018 in New York City.
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A DHS Office of Inspector General report, citing a 2022 survey, found 88% of border stations reported being understaffed during a surge in migration.
In response, existing workers are forced to go on assignment or file for overtime, which “have negatively impacted [their] health and morale,” the report found.
“We need more border patrol agents. We need more customs officials,” Mayorkas said. “And this is not only to serve our nation’s physical security, but it also facilitates lawful trade and travel and will serve to fuel America as an economic engine.”
USCIS technology needs
USCIS, which handles citizenship, visa and other immigration-related applications, faces its own challenges. Unlike the other two immigration agencies within DHS, USCIS is primarily funded by fees paid by those applying for immigration and naturalization benefits and processes.
The agency ended the Biden era with more employees, but the workload increased and union leaders said Congress needs to provide a lifeline.
Knowles, whose union role represents DHS asylum officers within USCIS, said that lifeline goes beyond staffing: Congress also needs to fund computer infrastructure and technology to make the work run smoother.
The agency’s needs “should not be just made possible by increasing the fee of a green card,” Knowles said. “If they want an immigration system that’s not broken, they need to not only enact policies, they need to fund and resource these agencies,” he said of Congress.
Knowles said that even with recent changes to asylum and refugee policies, USCIS officers are still processing over 1 million backlogged asylum claims, entries from the northern border and other ports of entry, green card applications, passport applications and marriage licenses, among others.
Workers’ tasks mount
ICE, which is central to Trump’s plans for mass deportations, has particularly struggled to grow its workforce over the last decade, according to its 2024 year-end report.
“We’re not built for the scale and capacity of having a functioning immigration system,” said Jason Houser, who was briefly chief of staff for ICE during the Biden administration. He warns that although 20,000 people are employed at ICE, only 6,000 are responsible for removals.
Sarah Saldaña, former ICE commissioner under President Barack Obama, said months-long training is one of the barriers to building up ICE staffing quickly.
“You need to bring somebody on board, but they can’t start working the next day. They need a serious amount of training in order to help them carry out their duties appropriately and effectively,” Saldaña said — something that could be complicated by Trump’s new goals to deport more people without legal status, including those without a criminal record.
“It sounds like anyone is vulnerable to being apprehended and removed. So that’s going to tax the current workforce,” Saldaña said.
A Texas National Guard soldier directs immigrants towards a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in September 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
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Saldaña was referring to recent comments from Trump officials, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has said those who enter the country illegally had already committed a crime — something that is currently considered a civil violation.
“The law applies to everybody, it applies to American citizens, it applies to people who come into this country illegally,” Noem, the DHS secretary, told reporters at the White House. “You will be held accountable for breaking our laws.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told CNN that the agency has a daily goal of arresting at least 75 people per each of its 20 field offices — and would try to surpass that target.
Trump also signed a bipartisan measure that allows ICE to detain and arrest people for a greater variety of crimes. An internal ICE memo obtained by NPR warned that just scaling removals to cover these crimes would be “impossible to execute within existing resources.”
Houser, the former chief of staff for ICE, said adding demands for border security requires more people throughout the whole chain of immigration processing.
“Yes, you can create more security at the border, more staffing. That’s going to increase encounters. When you increase encounters, you need more ICE staff, you need more USCIS staff, you need more Department of Justice staff,” Houser said. “You need more removability. You need more settlement services. And no one’s been serious about tackling the whole of the problem.”
Need help from Congress
The Trump administration is already trying to address workforce constraints.
On his first day in office, Trump froze federal hiring — but notably made an exception for positions related to immigration enforcement. They’re also excluded from resignations offered to other federal employees.
DHS has also given the U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other agencies the authority “to identify and apprehend illegal aliens.”
“We’re in the beginning stages. We are bringing more resources into the operation,” Border Czar Tom Homan said on ABC‘s This Week last month.
He said other departments such as Justice and Defense are pivoting to help with building barriers at the border and with transportation needs, which “takes ICE’s badges and guns out of those duties and puts them back on the street.”
But hiring even more people will require more funds from Congress, which could take months.
“I’ve been working with members of Congress and the whole team is working towards a number that makes sense,” Homan said on CNN’s Inside Politics the day after inauguration. “The more money we have, the more we can do.”
Noem also told reporters she was working to get additional funding in Congress’ upcoming budget negotiations.
Officials interviewed by NPR emphasized all parts of the immigration enforcement system need support.
“All I know is that our workers come to work every day and do their very best to deal with an enormous caseload,” Knowles, from the union representing asylum officers, said.
